ai4bharat/Pralekha huggingface dataset:
Ministry of Finance
GST Council decision relating to changes in law and procedure
The 35th GST Council Meeting was held here today under the chairmanship of Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. This was the first meeting of the Council after the swearing in of the new Government. The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs Shri Anurag Thakur besides Revenue Secretary Shri Ajay Bhushan Pandey and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance. The GST Council recommended the following changes related to law and procedure:
In order to give ample opportunity to taxpayers as well as the system to adapt, the new return system to be introduced in a phased manner, as described below:
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- Between July, 2019 to September, 2019, the new return system  to be available for trial for taxpayers. Taxpayers to continue to file FORM GSTR-1&FORM GSTR-3B as at present;
- From October, 2019 onwards, FORM GST ANX-1 to be made compulsory. Large taxpayers  to file FORM GST ANX-1 on monthly basis whereas small taxpayers to file first FORM GST ANX-1 for the quarter October, 2019 to December, 2019 in January, 2020;
- For October and November, 2019, large taxpayers to continue to file FORM GSTR-3B on monthly basis and will file first FORM GST RET-01 for December, 2019 in January, 2020. It may be noted that invoices etc. can be uploaded in FORM GST ANX-1 on a continuous basis both by large and small taxpayers from October, 2019 onwards. FORM GST ANX-2 may be viewed simultaneously during this period but no action shall be allowed on such FORM GST ANX-2;
- From October, 2019, small taxpayers to stop filing FORM GSTR-3B and to start filing FORM GST PMT-08. They will file their first FORM GST-RET-01 for the quarter October, 2019 to December, 2019 in January, 2020;
- From January, 2020 onwards, FORM GSTR-3B to be completely phased out
On account of difficulties being faced by taxpayers in furnishing the annual returns in FORM GSTR-9, FORM GSTR-9A and reconciliation statement in FORM GSTR-9C, the due date for furnishing these returns/reconciliation statements to be extended till 31.08.2019
To provide sufficient time to the trade and industry to furnish the declaration in FORM GST ITC-04, relating to job work, the due date for furnishing the said form for the period July, 2017 to June, 2019 to be extended till 31.08.2019
Certain amendments to be carried out in the GST laws to implement the decisions of the GST Council taken in earlier meeting
Rule 138E of the CGST rules, pertaining to blocking of e-way bills on non-filing of returns for two consecutive tax periods, to be brought into effect from 21.08.2019, instead of the earlier notified date of 21.06.2019
Last date for filing of intimation, in FORM GST CMP-02, for availing the option of payment of tax under notification No. 2/2019-Central Tax  dated 07.03.2019, to be extended from 30.04.2019 to 31.07.2019
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wishes grand success to Cannes Film Festival
Notes the coincidence of 75 years of India’s Independence, Cannes Film Festival and of diplomatic relations between India and France
“India has a lot of stories to be told and the country truly possesses immense potential to become the content hub of the world”
“Government remains steadfast in its commitment to enhance ease of doing business in film sector”
Expresses happiness about screening of a restored Satyajit Ray film in the Cannes Classic Section
“India pavilion will display facets of Indian cinema and promote international partnerships and learnings”
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has expressed happiness on India’s participation as ‘Country of Honour’ at the Cannes Film festival this year. In a message the Prime Minister noted that India’s participation comes at the momentous meeting of celebration of 75 years of India’s independence, 75th anniversary of Cannes Film Festival and 75 years of diplomatic relations between India and France.
Positioning India as the largest film producing country in the world, the Prime Minister said that multifariousness of our film sector is remarkable and rich heritage and cultural diversity are our strengths. India has a lot of stories to be told and the country truly possesses immense potential to become the content hub of the world, the Prime Minister added.
Reiterating India’s commitment to improve ease of doing business in the film sector, Shri Narendra Modi has said that from facilitating international film- coproduction to ensuring single window clearance mechanism for permissions for filming across the country, India offers seamless possibilities to filmmakers of the world.
The Prime Minister expressed happiness that a Satyajit Ray film has been restored for screening in the Cannes Classic Section as India celebrates the birth centenary of the maestro.
One of the many firsts, startups from India will showcase their strengths to the cine-world. The Prime Minister expressed confidence that India pavilion will display facets of Indian cinema and promote international partnerships and learnings.
Background:
India will be the official Country of Honour at the upcoming Marche’ du Film, organized alongside the 75th edition of Cannes Film Festival, in France. The Country of Honour status ensures India’s presence as Focus Country at the Opening Night of Marche du Film being organised at the Majestic Beach with spotlight on India, its cinema, its culture & heritage.
India is also a “Country of Honour at the Cannes Next, under which 5 new startups would be given an opportunity to pitch to the Audio-Visual Industry. Ten professionals will participate on the Animation Day networking. As a major highlight of India’s participation at this edition of Cannes Film Festival, World Premier of the Movie “Rocketry” produced by Shri. R. Madhavan is scheduled to be showcased at the Palais des Festivals of the market screening on the 19th May 2022.
The Indian delegation is led by Union Minister Shri Anurag Thakur and consists of film celebrities from across India.
Saurabh Singh
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Ministry of Science & Technology
Excess irrigation over northern India shifting monsoons towards northwest risking agriculture
Irrigation practices influencing precipitation patterns and risk to agriculture increasing due to climate extremes.
Climate researchers have discovered that excess irrigation over northern India shifts the September monsoon rainfall towards the north-western part of the subcontinent increases widespread weather extremes over Central India. These meteorological hazards expose the vulnerable farmers and their crops to risks of failure.
The study which establishes that monsoon precipitation is sensitive to the choice of irrigation practices in South Asia can help plan agricultural practices in this region.
South Asia is one of the most heavily irrigated regions of the world, largely using groundwater, and its major summer crop is paddy which is cultivated in water flooded fields. Hence it was pertinent to study how such practices can influence the monsoons which form the fulcrum of this agro-based economy.
Subimal Ghosh, Professor in Department of Civil Engineering and Convener at Interdisciplinary Programme in Climate Studies , a Centre of Excellence at IIT Bombay supported by the Department of Science and Technology and his climate group, investigated the impact of agricultural water use on the Indian Summer Monsoon using a climate model.
Fig A. Increase in irrigation leads to increase in evapotranspiration and consequent increase in extreme rainfall events 
The research published in the journal ‘Geophysical Research Letters’ recently showed that monsoon precipitation is sensitive to the choice of irrigation practices in South Asia. In another study, Prof. Subhankar Karmakar from IDPCS, IIT Bombay, and his research group identified for the first time that risks for rice and wheat have increased in the recent decade, with wheat at a two-fold higher magnitude than rice. The study followed the Assessment Report 5 of IPCC definition to quantify ‘Risk’ and has been published in ‘Environmental Research Letters.’
Increasing crop risk is predominantly driven by the decreasing number of farmers, and the wheat risk is also attributed to increasing minimum temperatures during the crop growing season. This study provided compelling evidence indicating that the hydro-climatic hazards related to precipitation extremes and drought are specifically alarmingly increasing the crops risk as compared to temperature extremes.
Another finding obtained from this study was extreme rainfall in recent decades in Central India has been increasing, and this is also caused by an increase in irrigation and consequent increase in evapotranspiration .
Fig B: A representative agricultural risk map to drought, precipitation extremes, and temperature extremes for rice and wheat in 2001 & 2011. 
The findings on irrigation-monsoon feedbacks and the agri-cartographic products will directly benefit the National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture by the GoI.
Publication link:https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083875
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab63e1
Ministry of Finance
ADB, India sign $10 million loan to support project preparation to expand horticulture in Himachal Pradesh
The Asian Development Bank  and the Government of India on 30th December 2020 signed a $10 million project readiness financing  to help finance piloting activities, and design and capacity building for an ensuing project that aims to expand horticulture production and farm household income in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh.
The signatories to the PRF for Himachal Subtropical Horticulture, Irrigation, and Value Addition Readiness Project were Dr. C. S. Mohapatra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance who signed for the Government of India, and Mr. Hoe Yun Jeong, Officer-in-Charge of ADB’s India Resident Mission, who signed for ADB.
After signing the loan agreement, Dr Mohapatra stated that the PRF project will support advance actions to achieve high level of project readiness through detailed design activities, capacity building of state level agencies, and creating an enabling environment for subtropical horticulture development in the state.
“The PRF project aims to ensure implementation readiness with prior testing of new production technologies and marketing systems so that the ensuing project is cost-effective and gets completed in a timely manner to enhance farm profitability,” Mr. Jeong said.
The ensuing project, to be designed by the PRF, will support development of subtropical horticulture, including cultivation of fruits and vegetables, in the state’s southern region which is currently lagging due to limited access to perennial water sources, crops losses due to wild animal encroachment and limited access to high value markets.
The pilot activities supported by the PRF project include establishment or rehabilitation of 16 irrigation schemes for water extraction, distribution and storage; developing 17 subtropical horticulture plots for ultra-high density production of selected fruits; fencing horticulture plots to protect crops from animal predation; and forming community horticulture production and marketing associations to build their capacities for business and marketing.
These pilot activities will then be scaled up under the ensuing project to be implemented in 7 districts of Himachal Pradesh. The PRF also supports establishment of water user association  on completed irrigation schemes and enhancing women’s participation.
ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.
Ministry of Science & Technology
A software solution for preventing attacks on 5G networks
A new indigenous software technology solution can now proactively detect and prevent zero-day vulnerability attacks in the 5G networks thereby reducing the network downtime. This can help smoothen countrywide communication as 5G networks become its lifeline in the near future.
Around ninety percent of the 5G technology is implemented into software by integrating several latest technologies  which enable testing the technology easily. But attack surface area is increased multifold in this process and is impossible to manage manually. Automating the whole testing process and continuous monitoring is the only sustainable solution.
Currently majority of the run time zero-day vulnerabilities are identified post attack, thereby creating damage to the brand as well as increasing the cost of recovery.
IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation at IIT Madras, a Technology Innovation Hub for Sensors, Networking, Actuators and Control Systems , supported by the Department of Science and Technology  under National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems , along with its incubated startup, is developing an indigenous security testing solution for 5G core network functions and Radio Access Network  software. This technology solution can automatically identify zero-day vulnerabilities in the network in advance by using techniques such as fuzzing and test oracles.
This solution has been manually tested in the 5G security lab of IITM Pravartak. Since it can help avoid the attacks in advance, it protects organisations against loss and saving the credibility of the brands.
The team used ethical hacking for finding vulnerabilities in the system. They tested the functionality issue in the network, created various attack scenarios based on topology, feature interaction, and the number of nodes involved by following the defined 5G standards of 3GPP.
The team is testing interoperability and security issues with multi-vendor products. Tests are conducted at the network packet level, the binary level, the code level and also using the code vulnerability scanners. A combination of all these methods will help reducing zero-day attacks by pre-emption mechanism.
Reducing zero-day vulnerabilities will reduce attack surface area, which in turn will reduce the need to pay ransom and also decrease network downtime of 5G networks which are crucial for communication.
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
Jalpaiguri Media Workshop: Officials including Lead Bank managers depict implementation of Centrally-sponsored welfare schemes
Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, August 8, 2018
Project officials and District Lead Bank managers gave details of achievements in implementation of various developmental and welfare schemes, including Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana and other projects at a day-long media workshop ‘Vartalap’ held at Jalpaiguri today. Also briefing the media about the successful funding of women Self Help Groups, who have refunded 95% of their loan amount, the Chief Manager of the district Lead Bank Central Bank of India, Shri Debjit Sarkar, said the bank has been successful in expanding its coverage of beneficiaries in Jalpaiguri district. Other senior officials including the Financial Literacy Official of the Lead Bank, Shri Subhash Dutta, addressed the interactive session of the event highlighting various schemes including Beti Bachhao- Beti Padhao and Swachha Bharat Mission.
Shri Ajay Mhamia, Deputy Director, PIB, Kolkata explained the nationwide PIB initiative of organizing district level media workshops throughout the year. Answering media queries requesting PIB intervention and help in redressal of their issues such as nonpayment, underpayment, lack of social security and non issuance of accreditation cards, Shri Mhamia reiterated that the union government always promotes self regulatory mechanism of the media and, therefore, such issues should be taken up by various media organizations and district press clubs for speedy redressal. Veteran Journalist Shri Jyoti Sarkar and Shri Pulakesh Ghosh, highlighted utility of press releases and write-ups and official data issued round the clock by PIB in context of the journalists working at the district-level. They urged their counterparts in print and electronic media to work in constant coordination with such agencies to disseminate authentic info.
Answering media queries and issues raised by the district Press Club secretary , Shri Pradip Sarkar, the Deputy Director of PIB, Kolkata, Smt Chitra Gupta clarified that one line motto of such workshop is to enlighten the masses through media with regard to their welfare measures taken by the Union Government. Smt Gupta conducted the event and moved the vote of thanks. Shri Santanu Sinha gave an audio visual presentation of PIB utilities, including the diversified multilingual pages of reference matter that has been made available on the revamped PIB website.
Under the ongoing series of such workshops, the next event is scheduled to be held at Darjeeling on August 10, 2018.
Cabinet
Cabinet approves Agreement between India and Uzbekistan on cooperation in the field of Agriculture and Allied sectors
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the signing of an Agreement between India and Uzbekistan for cooperation in the field of agriculture and allied sectors.
The Agreement between India and Uzbekistan provides for cooperation in the following fields:
- Exchange of information regarding laws, standards and product samples of mutual interest;
- Establishment of joint agriculture clusters in Uzbekistan;
- Exchange of experience in the field of crop production and theirdiversification;
- Exchange of experience in the field of seed production based on modern technology; exchange of information concerning certification of seed in accordance with the legislation of the States of the Parties; exchange ofsamples of seeds on beneficial terms.
- Application of technology for enhanced water use efficiency in agricultureand allied sectors, including irrigation;
- Conduct of joint scientific research on genetics, breeding, biotechnology, plant protection, soil productivity conservation, mechanization, waterresources, and mutual application of scientific results;
- Development and extension of cooperation in the field of plant quarantine;
- Exchange of experience in the field of animal husbandry, including animal health, poultry, genomics, setting up of quarantine facilities;
- Exchange of information between research institutes in the fields ofagriculture and food industry on scientific and practical activities 
- Cooperation in agricultural and food trade;
- Explore setting up of food processing joint ventures;
- Any other form of cooperation as mutually agreed between the Parties.
The Agreement provides for constitution of a Joint working Group comprising of representatives from both countries, the task of which would be to prepare plans of cooperation, provide solutions to the problems arising during the implementation of this Agreement and to monitor the implementation of tasks determined by the Parties. The meetings of the Working Group shall take place at least every two years, alternately in India and in Uzbekistan. This Agreement shall enter into force on the date of its signing and shall remain in force for a period of five  years, being automatically extended for a subsequent periods of five  years. This Agreement shall be terminated after six  months from the date of receipt of notification of either Party of its intention to terminate.
President's Secretariat
President of India to visit Uttar Pradesh  from November 24 to 25
The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind will visit Uttar Pradesh  from November 24 to 25, 2021.
On November 24, 2021, the President will grace and address the birth centenary celebrations of Chaudhary Harmohan Singh Yadav.
On November 25, 2021, the President will grace and address the centenary celebrations of Harcourt Butler Technical University.
Prime Minister's Office
PM greets people on the occasion of Ram Navami
PM greets people on the occasion of Ram Navami
(The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has greeted the people, on the occasion of
Ram Navami.
"रामनवमी के पावन अवसर पर देशवासियों को हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं। Greetings on Ram
Navami.", the Prime Minister said.
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
Sports Minister congratulates weightlifting contingent for best-ever performance in Commonwealth Championships
Minister of State  for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Kiren Rijiju met the successful Indian weightlifting contingent and congratulated them for their superlative performance at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships held in Apia, Samoa from July 9-14. India topped the medal tally in both junior and senior age groups.
Weightlifting events were held across three categories —senior, junior and youth. India won 35 medals across the three age groups, with 32 different athletes  securing the medals. India won 22 golds, 10 silvers and 3 bronze medals. MirabaiChanu, gold medalist at 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2018 Khel Ratna awardee, won gold in the women’s 49 kg with a total lift of 191 kg.
In addition to the 35 medals won at the meet, India also broke a total of 22 records in all three age groups - World, Asian, Commonwealth and National level. Jeremy Lalrinnunga competing in the 67 kg male event broke a youth world record with a lift of 136 kg in the snatch, this same lift also set a new youth record at Asian, Commonwealth and National level, as well as setting a new junior record at Commonwealth and National level.
JhilliDalabehera won the gold in the women’s 45kg event, and set 6 records with a clean and jerk lift of 94 kg and total lift of 164 kg at Commonwealth  and Junior National level.
14 of the medal winners at the championships along with Jeremy Lalrinnunga have participated either at the Khelo India School Games held in 2018 or the Khelo India Youth Games held in 2019.
Speaking about the performance, Sh Kiren Rijiju said, “This is India’s best performance ever in this tournament and I am very proud of our athletes. In the coming days, India can become a weightlifting powerhouse. We can have a close competition with China and North Korea. In the next 4-5 years, I want India to be competing with these two countries. We have the potential, we should get good numbers of medals in the Olympics.”
Speaking about winning the gold, MirabaiChanu said, “I am satisified with my performance as this is my third competition after an injury and I have got a medal in all of them. My preparations for Tokyo Olympics are going well and I will work even harder in the coming one year to secure a medal for India.”